Home teams were able to win just five of eight games in the opening weekend of this year’s postseason plus went a ‘money-burning’ 1-7 ATS. That changed quickly in last night’s first game, Philadelphia at Miami. The 76ers shot only 26 percent in the first half, as their starters were outscored 41-9 by their Heat counterparts. The Heat would lead by as many as 28 points in the second half and cruise to a 94-73 win. Philadelphia... Read more

All 30 teams were in action on the final day of the regular season (last Wednesday) with all 16 playoff berths already having been clinched. The East was settled with all eight seeds already having been decided but in the West, the Lakers, Mavs, Thunder, Hornets and Grizzlies still had some “skin in the game,” regarding their final seeding positions. The Lakers blew a huge 4th quarter lead at Sacramento but prevailed... Read more

The first of four college basketball champions was crowned on Wednesday when Santa Clara won the College Insider.com Tournament title with a 76-69 victory over Iona. These two schools had met only one pervious time, back in the Tournament of Roses at Portland, Oregon in 1960. Santa Clara won that meeting as well, 68-47. The Broncos became the third winner of the CIT, following Old Dominion in 2009 and Missouri St in 2010... Read more

The 2011 Final 4 from Houston will not have a single No. 1 seed participating for just the third time since seeding began back in 1979. The other years were 1980 and 2006 with both of those Final 4s being held at Indianapolis (funny how that kind of stuff happens). Louisville (a No. 2 seed) beat an eighth-seeded UCLA in the 1980 title game with Iowa (5-seed) and Purdue (6-seed) joining them in Indianapolis that year.... Read more

I wrote a two-part NBA report when the teams returned from the All Star break. I noted then, that the Chicago Bulls entered the All-Star break with a winning percentage over .700 (38-16, .704) for just the fifth time in franchise history. Three of the previous four times Chicago had done that, the Bulls went on to win the NBA title. However, MJ was part of those three NBA title teams, and those teams were playing quite... Read more

Sixteen ‘sweet’ teams remain and 15 games from now, on April 4 from Reliant Stadium in Houston, the 2011 national champions will be crowned. The selection committee ranked the entire field from 1 to 68 with the last four at-large teams selected and the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers playing what was called the "First Four". The winners from the group of at-large teams saw Clemson get a No. 12 seed and VCU a No... Read more

Ohio State held a slight edge over Kansas in last week’s coaches’ poll (17 first-place votes to 14) but extended that margin in Monday’s new poll, getting 25 first-place votes to Kansas’ six (I guess some of them saw OSU’s 93-65 destruction of Wisconsin on Sunday). Ohio State owned a much bigger lead in the AP poll last week (45-14 in first-place votes with BYU getting five and Duke one). Ohio State extended its lead... Read more

Four of the nation’s top-five teams won this week. No. 1 Ohio St crushed Penn St 82-61 in Happy Valley on Tuesday, earning the Buckeyes at least a share of the Big 10 regular season title. It marks the fourth time Ohio State has earned at least a share of the Big 10 title since Thad Matta took over as head coach for the 2004-05 season, the most by any Big 10 school during that span. Also note that Ohio State’s win was... Read more

Ohio State was No. 2 in last week’s AP poll and No. 3 (behind Kansas) in the coaches’ poll but on Monday, the Buckeyes found themselves atop both polls. No. 1 Duke lost 64-60 at Va Tech Saturday night, so a change at the top was expected. Ohio St was a solid No. 1 in the AP, getting 45 first-place votes to Kansas’ 14 (No. 3 BYU got five and No. 4 Duke, one) while the schools almost split the first-place votes in the coaches... Read more

As Gerald Ford once said back in 1974, “Our long national nightmare is over.” Updating to the NBA circa 2011, the Nuggets, like Ford did for Nixon, ‘pardoned’ Carmelo Anthony. The story reads like this; The New York Knicks have acquired Carmelo Anthony, league sources said. The swap is a three-way deal including Minnesota. The Knicks will send Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and a 2014... Read more